he skin; whence arose the fatal practice of forcing sweats by
the external warmth of air or bedclothes in fevers; for external warmth
increases the action of the cutaneous capillaries more than that of the
other secerning vessels; because the latter are habituated to 98 degrees of
heat, the internal warmth of the body; whereas the cutaneous capillaries
being nearer the surface are habitually kept cooler by the contact of the
external air. Sweats thus produced by heat in confined rooms are still more
detrimental; as the air becomes then not only deprived of a part of its
oxygene by frequent respiration, but is loaded with animal effluvia as well
as with moisture, till it can receive no more; and in consequence, while
the cutaneous secretion stands upon the skin in drops for want of
exhalation, the lungs are exposed to an insalubrious atmosphere.

I do not deny, that sweating may be so managed as to be serviceable in
preventing the return of the cold paroxysm of fevers; like the warm bath,
or any other permanent stimulus, as wine, or opium, or the bark. For this
purpose it should be continued till past the time of the expected cold fit,
supported by moderate doses of wine-whey, with spirit of hartshorn, and
moderate degrees of warmth. Its salutary effect, when thus managed, was
probably one cause of its having been so much attended to; and the fetid
smell, which when profuse is liable to accompany it, gave occasion to the
belief, that the supposed material cause of the disease was thus eliminated
from the circulation.

When too great external heat is applied, the system is weakened by excess
of action, and the torpor which causes the cold paroxysm recurs sooner and
more violently. For though some stimuli, as of opium and alcohol, at the
same time that they exhaust the sensorial power by promoting increase of
fibrous action, may also increase the production or secretion of it in the
brain, yet experience teaches us, that the exhaustion far out-balances the
increased production, as is evinced by the general debility, which succeeds
intoxication.

In respect to the fetor attending copious continued sweats, it is owing to
the animalized part of this fluid being kept in that degree of warmth,
which most favours putrefaction, and not suffered to exhale into the
atmosphere. Broth, or other animal mucus, kept in similar circumstances,
would in the same time acquire a putrid smell; yet has this error
frequently produced miliary e